CS601 Intellectual Property, Patenting and Tech. Transfer in Engineering

Online-course Fall 2007

Terrance Boult

Course Objective

• The Tech. Transfer Process
• Patents (General Overview)
• Review/critique of Patents
• Provisional Patents
• US Patent Preparation
• Foreign Patents
• Copyrights (general)
• Copyrights, the web and Open Source
• Licensing and License agreements
• Trademarks
• Trade Secrets

Secondary objectives include:

• Teach students to effectively select, read and critically evaluate patents and research papers related to patents
• Experience in presenting advanced material to/for others ONLINE. Students will all develop at least one on-line asyncronous "presentation"

• Students will learn to read and critique patents and research papers
• Students will summarize and lead a discussion of IP issues
• Students will have hands on experience and make contributions in intellectual property issues

• Text: "The patent process: a guide to intellectual property for the information age", C. Hovey. ISBN 0-471-44217-8 (Wiley.com).

• For many of the discussion we will 3-4 "shared" papers or patents per class period. The class reading list will be online and will continue to expand, however not all papers will be available online.
• The papers for each class will be listed in the reading-list as we get to that week. In addition to the papers I assign for each week, you will be expected to find a "personal" paper on your own. When you choose your paper/patents you should consult the class online/blog and if its not already been taken, then immediately post the reference . Only one person may review a particular "personal" paper/patent and its first post, first right.
• Class will include significant on-line "discussions" (Using e-college), which will be a major part of the grade. For students taking the course "on-line/on cable", will still be expected to take the lead in some discussions and will be expected to remotely present power-point. If remote Internet connections cannot support effective streaming audio, students will be able to call on the phone. (Exact process still being determined). The class "time" will not all be lecture and extended on-line discussions/blogging will be part of the process.
• A review for each paper/patent is due when assigned to be turned in and will be posted for all to see within 24hrs, which will begin the disuccsion period. Some reviews will be individuals, some will be group.

Class participation is a very important part of your grade. If you are going to miss the "online class" you should contact me ahead of time via email and probably provide a number I can call you. You can call my UCCS phone number (in the directory) and it will forward to my cell phone after 5 rings (and rings there 5 times before Voice mail). Everyone is expected to take part in every "class" disucssion having read the papers/patents, written your reviews and taken part in a discussion group. You should always expect to be called (eletronically) upon to lead part of the discussion (even if online) in any class, critique any shared paper, summarize your individual paper. Your group may want to prepare basic materials so that any one of you can lead the discuss of your "groups" comparative analysis.

The learning in this class obviously happens outside the classroom. This is not a fluff distance education course. I expect students to devote an average of 6-9 hours per week on the work for this class. Reading patents/papers can be highly variable depending on your background and how much digging you do (reading references in the paper/patents. ) You are not expected to become an expert in the topics but should be able to answer detailed questions. For some student the time needed to totally finish and understand the material could be basically unbounded.

Dr. Boult has published over 150 Papers and holds 6 patents with 9 pending. He is an El Pomar Endowed Professor of Innovation and Security at U.Colorado Colorado Springs. Before joining UCCS in 2003, he was an endowed professor and founding chairman of Lehigh University's CSE Department. He received his BS in Applied Math (1983) MS in CS (1984) and Ph.D. in Computer CS (1986) from Columbia University and then spent 8 years on the Columbia CS Department Faculty. He as won 2 teaching awards, multiple research/innovation awards and multiple IEEE service awards, and is a member of the IEEE Golden Core.

Dr. Boult's Vision and Security Technology (VAST) lab at UCCS. The VAST LAB supports 9 FT graduate students, 10+ undergraduates and a PostDoc. The lab is supported by over $2M in funding from multiple grants/contracts from ONR, Army, SOCOM and the Air Force, and was was part of the (completed) DARPA Human Identification at a distance project. Dr. Boult is also leading efforts with multiple companies on SBIR/STTR funded projects. The VAST LAB's ongoing research includes topics from video surveillance, biometric systems, optical system, intelligent cameras, Unmanned Aerial Vehicles, wireless GPS-enabled sensor networks, steganalysis, shipboard surveillance. Other supported areas include addressing adaptive web-sites to support trauma patient recovery.

Dr. Boult unique position as an El Pomar Chair, part of the Colorado Institute for Tech. Transfer and Implementation, provides release time so he work with companies using advanced technology to address societies needs. In 2004 Dr. Boult founded Securics, focused on commercializing performance enhancing and privacy preserving biometric technologies. Securics currently has two biometric related R&D contracts, including an NSF STTR joint with UCCS. Securics has been selected by the US military to develop a long distance, outdoor facial-recognition system. From 2002 through January 2004 he was the founding CTO of a leading company in automated video surveillance technology. His earlier research work has been commercialized by multiple companies. Since joining UCCS his efforts in SBIR/STTRs have yielded a dozen successful projects totaling nearly $5Million for partners and the university. Dr. Boult also does consulting in IP and technolgy valuation for VC and private firms. More details can be found at www.vast.uccs.edu/~tboult/vita.htm